Dejan Kovacevic, a lifelong Pittsburgher, is an award-winning sports columnist for Trib Total Media covering the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt and, recently, his fourth Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He also appears on WPXI-TV's 'Subway Final Word’ and hosts a weekly show on TribLIVE Radio. For 2011, he was named one of the country's top four columnists by the AP Sports Editors. For 2012, he was named one of the country's top three columnists by the National Headliners. For 2013, he was named the state's top columnist by the Keystone Press Awards and top columnist in Western Pennsylvania by the Golden Quills.

Mike. “Adolph” Milbury feels Milan Lucic’s action a result of Orpik not fighting Thorton. Bettman looks to suspend Orpik for the Cup a Check. Most in “Boston Wrong” feel justified. 5k for CrotchChecking. Lucic comments show what a Neanderthal he is, “Seven years only did it 3times”, “Don’t know why I did it” “Heat of the moment”. Hmmm, what Cooke and Ulf did outrage them but Milan and Marchand get passes? Go Red Wings!

Now after the rant,

1. Will “Meadowlark” Letang settle down? Stempy’s, Orpik and Scuderi called him out. I could care less what Letang said, he has said it before and still plays a selfish, undisciplined game. He needs to earn powerplay time not be given it.

2. Once again Scuderi over Bortuzzo will hurt, R.J.will park in front of net.

3. PK needs to pick it up.

4. Interesting tickets remain, unlike some announcers, it is because fans don’t believe in team, not due to not knowing they are available.

5. Gibbons, have not Ben a fan, but I will say who is giving a better effort to replace him? I like him on PK better than Adams.

I read one of the Boston papers this morning before my lengthy walk, and they actually defended this! They said it was the playoffs, and all was fair, and actually, it was a good way to ‘throw the Wings off their game’.

But, this was the same paper that defended Thornton’s assault of Orpik also, so nice to see the Neanderthal Goons have a media outlet.

If this was Neal, or Cooke, the suspension would be severe.
Because it is one of Jeremy Jacobs boys, nothing will happen.

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BUT ENOUGH OF THAT!!!

LET’S GO PENS!
Need to sweep these guys out, so rest is plenty for the next round!!
Malkin needs to SCIRE!! (For you, Brandie, wherever you iz)

Got fined five grand. Yes, you read that right. Can’t remember what Quenneville got fined for grabbing his own damn self in the same area, but I know it was more. Please…someone…explain the NHL’s logic on this one.

And y’know Peeps, we should tip our hat to the Detroit Red Wings and Mike Babcock.

That coach has that team SO disciplined. I mean, SO disciplined, they just stuck to their gameplan, kept skating, did not retaliate, knew they were faster than Boston, and they were justly rewarded in the end.

Really, the gap in discipline between the Wings and Pens is pretty clear. I hope our Birds can close it fast, cos they will need to.

If I had more energy I would go into a rant about the NHL’s main goal is to provide an employment for displaced sons of Canadian farmers, but I’ll spare you.

I see Lucic do something like this every time I watch Boston play, the NHL apparently is fine with the behavior, and shows little sign of changing, most sports leagues are insular. There was a fairly good GIF of all of Dubinsky cheap shots on Crosby from game one. I watch hockey for skill level combined with the control violence, not cheap shots and fights.

Here is the link, obviously there is more to discipline, not taking retaliatory penalties or matching minors, but the Penguins did a fair job of not going shorthanded during the season. Playoffs are a different animal as Letang demonstrated twice.

Anyway, meant to say i expect columbus to go left lane hammer down on their forecheck. Cuz lets face it…they have nothing to lose. If we can prevent them from disrupting our puck retrievals, meaning when both our dmen go into same corner we need to have forward support down low so pucks aren’t turned over and our breakouts aren’t disrupted.

Their counter once again will be to move their pressure up and close gaps on our forwards when we’re generating speed. Our counter to that will once again be high flips into NZ or cross corner…or in other words…checkmate.

Meant to add that hope we don’t see our 1st PP unit out there for over a minute. Considering how important PP is to our chances of winning, reducing said chance by increasing chance of shortie would…ummm…reduce our chances.

Spock most certainly wouldn’t deem that to be…wait for it….Logical. {smiley face}

Sarah, I see your point, but I’ll maintain the total penalty minutes is skewed because a fighting majors were no team gets a power play will skew the total minutes. Detroit had 7 fighting majors on the year, least in the league, I will agree they are disciplined in this regard, but they spent almost 50 more minutes shorthanded this year than the Penguins.

I won’t call the Pens disciplined but I think they did an adequate job of not going a man down, big caveat being that is the regular season, and they have a history of epic playoff blowups.

Indeed. Sick shot. But that play show Sid’s greatness as much as any split-the-D goal. Gets puck along boards…and is patient…and patient…draws two guys…and then that pass. Are you kidding me? No wonder there was so much room to blast that great shot.

Not sure if Bob and Steigy talked about Sid on that (I’m stuck with NBC Sportschannel), but good lord, what a play.

That gal is directly on our coach. Zero need to have Malkin on the point up 3-1. The worst with 2 D is 3-1. The Pens do not protect leads they want to increase lead. Wrong! When will HCDB get it? Short handed goals change games. TWO D.

1st unit would be rested to have a player or 2 out there, plus glass and/or stempty and you’re fine. Looked like we were shooting for an umbrella formation on PP with 1 dman but columbus smelled blood.

I know it won’t happen, but Letang should be benched. Scuderi on PK needs to be gone. HCDB is responsible, then one minute left in period and you pair Letang with Scuderi? Wow, it is tough to root for this stupidity. Hey Sid, you keep passing to wrong team.

And called it again. Since it is obvious our coach and GM do not care or realize that Letang and Scuderi suck but everyone else does a congrats. Bench both of them. ZERO effort on goal. Not Acceptable except for Ray and Dan. This is exactly what you get when you refuse to hold accountable Letang’s childish penalties, horrible giveaways and Scuderi watching every goal go in. Awesome job guys. FIRE Dan now.

1. Malkin and Crosby cannot win a face off, Jussi can but Dan is not smart enough to get that.

2. Letang and Scuderi rewarded by finishing end of regulation, starting first overtime. Good job Dan.

3. Shorthanded goal turned game, why? Dan decided Malkin on point would be a good thing 3-1 lead not good enough score 4, not hold them to one. Stupid.

4. Nothing is gonna change. Malkin and Sid appear uninterested.

5. Just think Pyatt will be in next game for Gibbons. That should account for at least a goal. Against us that is.

Columbus just scored again in overtime on a Letang giveaway and Scuderi letting hs man behind him for 4th time. HCHB responds that both will play even more next game, Craig Adams will be on top powerplay unit and Pens will simply decline all penalties and forfeit all face offs since it makes no difference to him anyhow.

Both teams have now blown 3-1 leads. Penguins need to figure out puck retrieval against the aggressive forecheck. They were successful in the regular season by playing opponents even 5v5 and winning the special teams, that did not happen tonight. Penguins need production from the 2nd line, they are getting most of the O-Zone starts, are generating shots, but not goals.

Scuderi needs to be starched for who I am not sure England and Bortuzzo are not exactly consistent and the 13 playoff games does not inspire confidence. The deployment of the defense pairings needs to be altered, not sure why Letang/Scuderi got more D-Zone starts than Martin and Orpik. They need better puck support from forwards.

But this game was lost on poor special teams play, that needs to get better, power play need to be figured out.

I will not ever understand the the idea that in a league were the average coaches tenure is 2.5 years that coaching is that crucial, putting significant blame/praise on a coach is an attempt to prescribe causality in environment that is random and drive by chance, which defines the playoffs. If coaches are easily and frequently replaced do they really have that much value?

I wanted The Wings for the first series. That series opponent would have been the best indicator of the pens state of the union. The BJ’s may be ready to go in game three. It really doesn’t matter in that the Pens can’t overcome major flaws in management, coaching and effort. Without a major overhaul of discipline, structure and accountability, this team is indifferent and bloated. Long term contracts will do that.

Unfortunately, once they moved Malkin to the wing and went with two defensemen, the power play died. Malkin much better when he has the whole ice to play with, not stuck in the corner. A lot of Adams, Scuderi haters. Adams was tough, Scuderi looks physically weak. Best line is combo of Sutter-Bennet-whomever. James Neal must make a difference. Letang needs a seat. Sid is making some bad decisions in the offensive zone. Must have been twenty plays where Columbus left their zone with a three-on-two break. Turnovers are killing them.

Adams is not the problem, he spent 11 minutes on the ice, 7 minutes 5v5, started 80% of time in the defense zone but still produced positive puck possession numbers. If you want to fault players looked to the guys taking up cap space and getting the most ice time and no goals.

Common fans like us? Speak for yourself, JWW. Kidding aside, there are more reasons sometimes than meet the eye.

You’ve just heavily invested in those two players. Are you admitting one year in that you made two HUGE mistakes? And if you believe NOW that one or both are and that an offseason reconfiguring of personnel would be necessary, are you going to say or do anything now to decrease the trade value of those players moving forward? Well, at least one.

I’ll add, not the Adams should be playing or on the roster, but in a game that is decided by the smallest of margins it is on the guys spending a half hour on the ice, Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Neal, Kunitz.

Agree. Maybe the stars would not take neal ties if we had someone to knock the crap out of them instead of them defending themselves. Shero added depth, but they are not tougher to play against, no one fears a physical battle vs Pens. That is on Shero. Expect Conner to replace Gibbons.

Only what do Dan and Ray not see? Malkin should never take a draw when Jussi is on the ice. Giveaways, Globetrotter Hockey due to lack of discipline due to coach failing to hold stars accountable. Takeaways, Effort, hits, effort and players that actually check. Please forward to Dan and Ray as they are blind to the issues. Instead call off practice, Pens are tired again

You are correct and it should be written they are top 3 regular season players but disappear in playoffs. I admit I thought MAF was only issue but I am wrong. Pens are Fantasy champs with no hunger, no guts, they are soft they have no leadership. Shero failed to recognize it. Brought back same players, Letang contract will haunt them till it is over, the guy will never get it, most selfish player in NHL and the organization will not address it. Bench him for a game! Otherwise you deserve to lose. Same with Scuderi.

Happy Easter! I went to the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Paul’s Basilica here in Daytona Beach so I didn’t suffer last night over either the Pirates or the Penguins. Hopefully, the Pirates can win today after those two disgusting loses on Friday and Saturday, and the Pens, hopefully, will make more of an effort to beat Columbus than they apparently did last night.

What’s disappointing to me is that it seems like the players quit on disco when he makes boneheaded decisions. We were still up 3-2 after the self inflicted shortie but we moped around like someone just kicked our dog. We need to snap out of it and regain focus and control. I have a feeling the players wont be able to mope around cuz of 4 forward configurations anymore but no matter what happens, everyone makes mistakes, even disco. Players need to know that disco is no different than the players, he makes mistakes too but players can’t pack it in just cuz of one mistake.

We were in total control in the ozone, NZ and dzone. Columbus was so worried about us countering their pressure that we didn’t even need to murphy dump the puck over their pressure to spring rushes cuz they were backing the f&%^ up out of fear and respect allowing for tape to tape passes.

Fleury should have his doc come in for a group session. Mentally we need to be stronger. And i dunno if sid and kuni are nursing any injuries but sid seems hesitant to shoot and his passes are off. Kuni just seems a step slow. Hope they’re ok cuz geno is dancing on the perimeter but we need him to bull his way to the net and middle to get shots off.

Was also saying during the game that we were shooting high way too often. We had chances to pepper his pads and crash the net for Pass off Pad plays but shot high and never got the juicy rebounds Bob was going to give us. Stempty almost had the game winner when sid tried to POP.

DJ, i was livid to hear him talk about regular season but no excuse for players to not regain focus. Gameplan was working to perfection up to that point. But i also couldn’t believe my eyes when i saw 4 forwards out there while up 3-1 in the 2nd. Don’t want to say i saw it coming…but i saw it coming…on friday.

Good way to regain focus and momentum would’ve been to chip it in and drop the hammer on their dmen but can’t say i saw alot of momentum changing hits flurries by the net. POP plays were there and will be there.

We gave them the one game columbus was allowed to win. If i have to watch columbus mgmt celebrate one more time…

Ya but tangers shots were from the point. I’m talking about the chances from sharp angles and in the circles. I like pickin the top corner as much as anyone but Bob was sharper but his rebound control isn’t great. We’re moving the puck well but not finishing. POP POP POP and crash the net.

I think i saw neal had 7 or 8 shots. But once again, most we high shots. Not conducive to juicy rebounds with crease crashers. After the 1st, pens coaches should’ve been able to tell them to shoot for Bobs pads and go creasecrashin. And sid definitely was forcing. He needs to keep them honest with some more shots and safe plays.

Yes i’m aware tangers shot isnt accurate. But last night’s result wasn’t cuz of tanger. He was actually quite solid defensively. Did he make a blunder or 2? Yes, but so did PM, scuderi, orpik, nisky and maatta.

We need to decide if we’re in it to win as a group?!?! One mistake by tanger, disco or whoever CAN NOT lead to the whole team going into the tank. We had more than half the game to go with a 3-2 lead. More than enough time to re-establish control.

Blunder or two is being very kind, HM. On the game winner, you did see Letang skate across the crease (to save Scuds from himself) while leaving the forward who was on his hip, right?

Not saying this is on one guy or the coach alone — FAR from it. We’re just not consistently putting ourselves in the best position to win PLAYOFF-style hockey. Very frustrating to watch, to say the least.

Yes, i saw that while i was yelling at jussi to get off his ass. Calvert had 3 whacks and a cup of coffee and jussi is still standing behind the goal line. We lost that game mentally long before that play.

Yeah, could talk all day, Sarah, about those other teams. Haven’t caught any of DET-BOS yet but have seen a fair amount of STL-CHI.

It’s laughable how we would even match up given the brand of hockey others are playing but just looking to win this series. We lose next game and I see zero chance of taking 3 of 4. Need bold moves by Dan for this next one and player leadership and accountability on ice.